A Few Firsts.... But Little First Class.
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Well, time to bite the bullet so to speak and post my maiden trip report. Apologies in advance if some of this sounds familiar as parts have been posted in various other threads to date.
Well I can honestly say now that this site has had an affect on me (and I mean that in the nices possible way.... )
I had a trip to our head office in Pittsburgh coming up, combined with a few days at a conference in North Carolina, so I set about thinking how I could maximise SC for this itinerary. I was comp’d WP this year with 840 SC, so wanted to make sure that I meet the requalification criteria this membership year to maintain the “perks” of this status.
As our company has a Y only policy, maintaining WP is a bit of a struggle for me (as above). After reading on this forum about the earning potential of YUP/KUP fares it was clear that such fares would make a significant contribution to my requalification attempts. I was also prepared to personally foot for any fare difference between a flexible Y ticket and the P class fare (and then subsequently claim this fare difference as a tax deduction due to flights being work related).
As all AA/AE flights to PIT are single class, trying to earn a reasonable (my interpretation of reasonable at least) amount of SC would involve a 3 sector itinerary – 2 in P class and the last to PIT in Y. This then raised the issue of misplaced checked luggage, particularly given the recent experiences of simongr and JohnK. Simon then started The Great Hand Luggage Only Challenge thread, which inspired me to also partake of this quest.
So this trip would see a few firsts for me:
booking via aa.com
dealing with the IndiAA call centre
flying domestic first (P) class on AA
flying internationally with only carry-on luggage.
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I knew reasonably in advance when I needed to be in Pittsburgh, so started looking at flight options on aa.com. The routing that seemed to work reasonably well that enabled me to connect with flights from Australia and only spend the one day travelling across the US was LAX-DFW-ORD-PIT. Tacked on tho this was a MEL-SYD-LAX-SYD-MEL with MEL-SYD and SYD-MEL giving me an additional 40 SC for the trip. Strangely, a more direct KUPP fare – such as LAX-ORD-PIT – was more expensive than the routing I settled on.
I had a commitment in LA on the way home, for which the date hadn’t been confirmed when I made the first bookings, so this would happen at a later date.
The LAX-DFW-ORD-PIT was put on hold on aa.com and I then rang AA IndiAA to organise payment and have them enter my QFF #. Getting them to correctly enter my address took some time using the phonetic alphabet approach that serfty suggested. After about 24 hours I still hadn’t received the authorisation form, so another call to IndiAA and the email was received in about 20 minutes. Form printed and faxed to Sydney and the reservation on aa.com showed as ticketed the next day.
Meanwhile I had to get hold of a suitable roll-aboard for my clothes for this trip. I already had an STM backpack for my laptop, but I was a bit lacking in the suitcase department. As QF seem to enforce the carry-on luggage requirement more than AA, I wanted to make sure I kept to the 45” total linear dimension. The High Sierra case that I settled on is actually 42”, but can be expanded for those times when extra space is required and I am happy to check my luggage. As I would later find out, this is small by comparison to the most of the cases that people in the US will carry on.
My commitment in LA was then confirmed for the morning of Saturday 22nd, so I would spend Friday 21st getting from PIT to LAX. This time I settled on PIT-LGA-ORD-LAX as I had to make sure I got to LAX in enough time to pick up a hire car and drive down to SNA to collect them. This would also be my first time to NYC (albeit only at LGA) but again, this routing was cheaper than PIT-ORD-LAX
I must confess though that for this booking I screwed up a bit. The original booking was a 14 day advance purchase KUPP fare, and was put on hold just inside that 14 day window. When I rang IndiAA the next day, the 14 day fare no longer applied so would need to be a more expensive 7 day fare. I originally thought that I was being screwed on the exchange rate, so decided to wait and call AA in the US. What I didn’t realise at the time was that this additional delay caused the original booking to expire, so the new fare was priced as the 7 day fare anyway. So IndiAA may have quoted the fare correctly after all. I am still not sure why the fare was repriced at 7 days when the booking was put on hold at 14 days?
So, back on aa.com, enter bookings and then try the payment on-line method. Initially the AMEX # wasn’t accepted, but a tip from Dave Noble got around this, so payment made in GBP via the website.
I set the alarm for 4:45am for the 12th. Unfortunately Mini Shano had a restless night so I only managed about 3 hours sleep. Oh well, at least I should be able to sleep on the SYD-LAX leg, even in Y. As I only had carry-on I did not need to be at the airport as early as I typically would, and was subsequently dropped off at the QF terminal at 6:00am for a 6:30 flight.
Entering the QF domestic terminal there was a reasonably long queue at the International Transfers check-in area, so I went to the Business Class queue. There has been some discussion on AFF about correct etiquette here – the international transfers counter or the regular business class counter. Living up to my WP tag I decided that I was important enough to bypass the plebeian horde and join the elites. This turned out to be a mistake (karma perhaps) as it took 15 minutes for the three groups ahead of me to be checked in. So at 6:15 I was finally checking in and then told that they would have to put me on the 7:00am flight as luggage check-in had closed for the 6:30 flight….. WTF!
I politely told the check-in agent that I was only travelling with carry-on…. No problem Mr Shano, we will keep you on the 6:30 flight (JAFW). With my MEL-SYD and SYD-LAX BP’s in hand it was through security and then straight down to the departure gate as they were in the final stages of boarding.
As I was one of the last to board it was a struggle to find O/H locker space for my roll-aboard. How dare all of the other passengers take up so much luggage space! After a bit of re-arranging it was stowed above row 3, meaning I did not have to fight traffic on arrival to collect this bag. With much consternation I was forced to place my backpack under the seat in front of me.
We departed on time and then shortly after the bacon and egg muffin served for breakfast. I grabbed the Australian Way magazine after breakfast and managed to complete one of the Sudoku puzzles before we descended into SYD.
Our arrival gate was as far as we could possibly get from the international transfer area, so it was a brisk walk to the other end of the terminal to catch the bus over the T1. I recalled serfty posting that busses left at the 00, 20, 40 minute marks every hour, hence my brisk pace. BP swiped, down the escalator and then straight onto the shuttle bus to the international terminal. I had originally planned to put T1 here but can never remember the correct terminal designations, so rather than sounding like an idiot thought it better to simply put international terminal.
At T1 (or T2, or T3 ???) I went to the APEC lane and was through immigration in a couple of minutes (treatment befitting a WP I’d say). For the first time is quite a while my PP was stamped on departure without requesting this be done.
Once through immigration it then occurred to me that by transferring MEL-SYD-XXX you miss out on the express security clearance as no voucher was issued in MEL.
Thankfully I was only in the queue for a few minutes and then through into DF where I needed to pick up another memory card for my digital camera. I then changed some money for the deteriorating American Peso and then made my way to the QF First Lounge.
I decided that I would have a sit down breakfast in the lounge this time, so made my way over to find a vacant table. I was surprised to see a mate of mine that I did my engineering degree with, so I joined him and ordered the ham omelette, coffee and fresh OJ. It turns out that he was also on QF107, but seated on the UD (spoilt prat!).
After eating, a couple of cups of coffee and catching up with my mate from uni I then found a vacant PC and logged onto aa.com to print my LAX-DFW-ORD-PIT boarding passes. MY QFF # was clearly displayed on the boarding passes, so the IndiAA agent had successfully managed to do this. Then I logged onto my webmail account to check and answer a few emails then it was time to wander down to the gate for boarding.
"I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty." Lily Bollinger on champagne
My last overseas trip I had managed points upgrades to J in both directions, so it was a bit of a reality check to be back in Y for this much longer flight. I was booked on a non-upgradeable fare, so even if I felt like blowing 72,000 points on the upgrade, this would not have been possible. Hmmm, now that is an example of good value for the QFF program.
Expertflyer the previous afternoon had been showing down to O9, so I knew that the flight would only be lightly loaded. Being WP I was one of the first to board to make sure I could stow my bag and backpack close to my seat. I then waited for my seat mates in 46J and 46K to show (whoever that was going to be) and was pleasantly surprised when it was clear I would have the row to myself. Alas, not new interior on this bird.
Actual departure was not until 11:06 due to a “technical issue” with Captain Cook (seriously) hitting to go pedal down runway 16R at 11:17.
There has been some discussion about the CSM personally greeting platinum status passengers flying. For this flight I was greeted by the Y cabin manager Russ (didn’t catch his surname – too busy thinking about what I could bludge from QF) who greeted me with: “Hi Mr Shano, I am Russ the cabin manager. You obviously fly a lot with us (well not as much as some – my comment not his). Obviously I can’t get you a seat up the front (must be a common request) but if I can get you anything else please ask. So I requested, and received, newspapers, noise cancelling headphones and a glass of champagne from the J cabin (with a few refills too). Small consolation for the lack of a skybed, but I’ll take what I can get. I don’t really know why I asked for champagne as I rarely drink the stuff – usually only when flying J (infrequent) or at weddings (even more infrequent at the moment) – but figured it was a bit too early for a glass of wine and the beer they serve on board is never cold enough (maybe not for you lot from the mother land). So bubbles it was.
Sitting opposite me in 47G was sausage man. I named him this because not long after take-off he proceeded to pull out a Styrofoam package containing what appeared to be a mixed grill (where do you buy a mixed grill airside at SYD???). Now I like a barbequed sausage as much as the next person, but the thought of said sausages sweating in someone’s carry-on for a couple of hours before consumption was not overly appealing.
Lunch was served some time after, consisting of some chicken and beef concoctions. As typically J and F menus are posted in these sorts of reports I figured that the Y swill that was offered was not really worthy of a mention. That didn’t stop me from eating it, although by this time was tempted to snag a sausage (no pun intended) from my mate in 47G.
The AVOD worked perfectly for this flight, although I struggled to find something to watch that particularly interested me. I started with Oceans 13 (below par), then on to some Nicholas Cage movie (purely to watch co-star Jessica Biel) and then an English movie. Despite this boredom I barely slept for more than about an hour on the flight.
A flight attendant came through the cabin with US immigration and customs forms. He asked me if I had a visa and I told him I wanted a visa waiver form, at which point he handed me the whiteform. I handed this back and asked for the green form. Poor mistake from QF – I hope that no first time visitors to the US ended up with the white form when they were eligible for the visa waiver program.
Breakfast (mixed grille) was served about 2 hours out of LAX. We landed about 7:10 am and were disembarking about 10 minutes later.
Very nice trip report Shano. Looking forward to the rest of the adventure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shano
I then waited for my seat mates in 46J and 46K to show (whoever that was going to be) and was pleasantly surprised when it was clear I would have the row to myself.
Exit row? All to yourself? Some people have all the luck. I got stuck with someone who extended his shoulders fully and arms on both armrests for the duration of the SYD-LAX flight leaving me to lean into the aisle and have my shoulder bumped every 2 minutes.
Exit row? All to yourself? Some people have all the luck. I got stuck with someone who extended his shoulders fully and arms on both armrests for the duration of the SYD-LAX flight leaving me to lean into the aisle and have my shoulder bumped every 2 minutes.
Yes, I was very fortuntate. I got many envious looks from other passengers and was expecting someone to try and take 46J, but thankfully this did not happen (that's me being a tad selfish ).
I am in 46H for my Saturday night flight back to Australia so probably won't be so lucky. Expertflyer is currently showing F4A4J9C0D0I0B9H9K9M0R0L0V0S0N0Q0O0X0E0 so looks like it will be a pretty full flight.
I have lodged an UG request, but not sure I want to spend 72,000 points on this (or if it will come through). I have several trips to China coming up later in the year, so this would give me nearly 3 x Y -> J UG's.
)
Looking forward to the rest of the adventure.
).
It sounds like it was a bit of a reality check coming back to whY. I agree though, save those points for the China upgrades.
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